Shut up and mine. :-DAt this price I am already mining at a loss, but I am doing it anyway to keep the house warm (and fuzzy), and because I am a believer, due to the potential (still largely unrecognized) of keeping and moving a convenient asset under the evil gov't radar screen, and because I expect an euro and dollar crash in the medium term that will make the bitcoin price crash seem like an hiccup.

I was just stopping by to whinebitchcomplain and smoke a bowl about the current nearly-2-day-long block we're dealing with right now, blugh. With how low Bitcoin's value dropped over the weekend... just... WOW! Nobody to blame kinda makes for moot conversation though

Shut up and mine. :-DAt this price I am already mining at a loss, but I am doing it anyway to keep the house warm (and fuzzy), and because I am a believer, due to the potential (still largely unrecognized) of keeping and moving a convenient asset under the evil gov't radar screen, and because I expect an euro and dollar crash in the medium term that will make the bitcoin price crash seem like an hiccup.

Mostly agreed, although it would make more sense to just convert some euro's or dollars in to BTCs and use natural gas to heat your house. But where is the fun in that

Ok I've installed ubuntu. I'm at the main screen and I can choose software center and the get software ect. Just need to know where to go from here. Thanks for all the help. In no time I will have 500 mash on line.

Install AMD videodrivers (called "restricted" drivers in the linux world, as they are not opensource). Just click on the ubuntu logo top left and start typing "drivers". Click on "additional drivers" and activate the recommended driver. You will have to reboot after that.

Select the appropriate package (probably 64 bit if you installed 64 bit ubuntu). Save, open the tarball (its like a zip file) and extract them somewhere, like on your desktop. IN the extracted folder there should be an installation script install-APP.sh, double click it and run it in a terminal. If it complains about permissions, you may have to make the script executable first by right clicking the file and in the properties mark it as executable, not sure if AMD set it as such. Be aware, last time I installed OpenCL the installer would reboot my PC after it installed no questions asked.

What about my wallet.dat file do I lose that or do I store it on my zip drive?

There's no need to have the wallet or even the bitcoin program (from bitcoin.org) on the mining computer, especially one you keep at a remote location. Keep the wallet on the computer where you want to use it, and on backup.

If you have lots of coins, keep those in a wallet only on backups (several encrypted copies at different locations), and keep only spending money in the wallet on the computer. You can even send coins to your offline wallet. It doesn't need to be online to "receive" coins.

Ubuntu is a fabulous OS. The only reason I have to revert to windows now and then is gaming. On my laptop(s) I have not installed windows in like 5 years. Well, except for inside a virtual machine hosted by ubuntu to test windows stuff.

There's no need to have the wallet or even the bitcoin program (from bitcoin.org) on the mining computer, especially one you keep at a remote location. Keep the wallet on the computer where you want to use it, and on backup.

Strong recommend this. If you mining rig has nothing but mining software running on a stripped down linux distro it isn't much interest to a hacker. Since you likely won't be monitoring your rig 24/7 don't keep a wallet on there. The more you make your mining rig a dedicated and simplified mining appliance the more stable it will be and the less attractive it is to an attacker.

Ubuntu is a fabulous OS. The only reason I have to revert to windows now and then is gaming. On my laptop(s) I have not installed windows in like 5 years. Well, except for inside a virtual machine hosted by ubuntu to test windows stuff.

I wish i could convince the ladies thatAs soon as they can not find their precious word, excel and last but not least internet explorer they go into a nervous breakdown. On the other hand linux still suxx it will allways stay a nerd operating system, for people like me its easy when something fails but for the others.. Pfff they really have no clue what todo if something crashes or goes into errors.You can say whatever you want over windhoos for n00bs it is the best.They can simply restart and it works again, try that on linux when it crashed .... i assure you it will not start without you having to fix the filesystem and thats when your lucky. ( by this i mean turn of the power like they do when it crashes)Yes i hate windhoos too but its the one who made computers easy for the masses which i think linux never will be.Ofcourse linux has been improved a little bit and yes even some n00bs now can install linux but if something fails its still a text base os where you endless need to edit and type commands to get things installed or fixed.Even the so rumoured rpm packages manage to constant fail a install for whatever reason, so before linux becomes a serious competition for windhoos it still has a enormous long way to go. As soon as i can say to my wife start up the pc and push go and start install and at the moment it goes wrong she can click fix this, i think it will succeed else it allways will be the nerd os what it is. And ofcourse linux has totally no games like the windhoos platform all major games only get released on the consoles or windhoos, hardly any game is linux friendly besides doom

Bronan, how long has it been since you tried a user friendly distro like ubuntu? Its perfect for noobs. Its so much easier and safer to do basic stuff, office, internet, email, facebook/twitter.. its all integrated, maintenance is a breeze with centralized updating, no need for AV, etc. Finding and adding software is a breeze with software center. Crashing? It doesnt crash. And if I do brick it because Im poking a little too hard under the hood, at worst I can reinstall the OS in 10 minutes without losing any user settings or documents and even have all all the same apps and packages reinstalled.

My mother has been using ubuntu for the past 5 years. She is 75, and its perfect for her, she never really got the hang of windows, but ubuntu she gets. I recently installed ubuntu on an old PC of my neighbours, it was intended to allow the kids to surf more securely and play some games; the parents are mostly PC illiterate, the kids all under 7 years old. I expected many phonecalls initially, but Ive had ZERO. Seriously not one. I thought they wouldnt use it, but they use the thing every day, educatinal apps like gcompris for the kids, and the parents now use it instead of their own PC for internet, email, skype homebanking.

The only real pitfall with linux is hardware (in)compatibility. If you have a machine with a buggy ACPI bios or some obscure wifi or network card that is not supported out of the box, a printer thats not well supported, then it can be a difficult and frustrating process. But its the exception, my guess is on 90-95% of PCs, you will have no problems at all.

edit: ok, and another issue is software compatibility; if you are a hardcore gamer, obviously ubuntu is no go. If you need a specific app that doesnt have a linux equivalent, it might be a no go. Video editing comes to mind. Though if its just one or two apps, you can usually run them under wine or in a VM.

Allright, Im again mining with 2x 5850s. Took a bit longer than anticipated but had some cooling issues and then I had to borrow one of my decent PSUs to my neighbor. I didnt want to wait too long, so now I have a rat rig thats powered by 2 old flaky ~300W PSU's, one powering the GPU the other the rest. Hey, it works .

More good news, I ordered another XFX 5870 for cheap (120 euro woohoo) and my neighbor is buying me a flashy zalman PSU, so i may actually power the beast.

If you ever look to expand try to find an "ancient" 5970. At $500 it is the best value for mining. At $400 (sometimes you can find it on "sale") it blows away any other card. There are a lot of used ones on ebay but some go for >$400+. If you are patient and low bid you can eventually snag on for $300 to $330. I know some people are afraid of ebay but ebay w/ paypal has 30 day buyer protection. If the card has been damaged or is defective mining is going to expose it and a lot faster than 30 days.

My rigs are now nothing but 3x5970s ea (moving from a hodgepodge or 5870s, 6950s, 6970s, 6990s). Hopefully when the 7xxx cards come out those gamers who hung on to the 5970s through the 6xxx series will dump them on ebay. Maybe we can even see <$300 5970s prices. Well a miner can dream right?

If you ever look to expand try to find an "ancient" 5970. At $500 it is the best value for mining.

It could be if you have to pay for electricity, which I dont (up to a limit). My only concern is MH/Euro, and 5850s and 5870s are tough to beat. Even if you include electricity cost, the difference with a 5970 would be minor if you dont max out your rigs (ie, 3 or 4 cards per system). 5970s I imagine would shine with energy efficiency if you can plug 3 or possibly 4 of them in a single rig, but they are also easily 50-100% more expensive per MH in purchase. That takes a while to earn back.

If you ever look to expand try to find an "ancient" 5970. At $500 it is the best value for mining. At $400 (sometimes you can find it on "sale") it blows away any other card. There are a lot of used ones on ebay but some go for >$400+. If you are patient and low bid you can eventually snag on for $300 to $330. I know some people are afraid of ebay but ebay w/ paypal has 30 day buyer protection. If the card has been damaged or is defective mining is going to expose it and a lot faster than 30 days.

My rigs are now nothing but 3x5970s ea (moving from a hodgepodge or 5870s, 6950s, 6970s, 6990s). Hopefully when the 7xxx cards come out those gamers who hung on to the 5970s through the 6xxx series will dump them on ebay. Maybe we can even see <$300 5970s prices. Well a miner can dream right?

Thanks for the advice ! No doubt that the 5970 is the superior BTC mining card at the moment. Sadly they want about 750$+ !!! new here in Switzerland. They are really hard to find. 5xxx series is dead here. Only second hand cards are available. I'll keep my eyes open

Second hand cards FTW! Seriously, with some luck you can find astonishing good deals. 120 euro for a 5870 which is the hashing equivalent of a 6970 costing almost 3x as much here. OKay, so I wont have much, if any warranty, but I dont except them all to die 3x in 2 years on average.

Thanks for the advice ! No doubt that the 5970 is the superior BTC mining card at the moment. Sadly they want about 750$+ !!! new here in Switzerland. They are really hard to find. 5xxx series is dead here. Only second hand cards are available. I'll keep my eyes open

Wow $750 I can see why you passed on a 5970.

I didn't realize supply and prices varied that much overseas. Wonder if I should buy like 10 used 5970 from ebay? Test/burn em, and then sell them in bitcoins to international users. The US postal service has pretty cheap international rates. If you don't mind me asking what do new 6970s go for in Switzerland?

Depending on how cheap I can get 5xxx series gear it might be a win-win for me & international miners. I am willing to drop $3K to $4K into video cards if there is enough interest.

Thanks for the advice ! No doubt that the 5970 is the superior BTC mining card at the moment. Sadly they want about 750$+ !!! new here in Switzerland. They are really hard to find. 5xxx series is dead here. Only second hand cards are available. I'll keep my eyes open

Wow $750 I can see why you passed on a 5970.

I didn't realize supply and prices varied that much overseas. Wonder if I should buy like 10 used 5970 from ebay? Test/burn em, and then sell them in bitcoins to international users. The US postal service has pretty cheap international rates. If you don't mind me asking what do new 6970s go for in Switzerland?

Depending on how cheap I can get 5xxx series gear it might be a win-win for me & international miners. I am willing to drop $3K to $4K into video cards if there is enough interest.

I dont think second hand cards cost anything like that in Switzerland. I think he meant be the odd shop still selling them new as rarity for those that really need them or online shops that havent updated their site in a few years . For roughly half that price you can buy used 6990s in Belgium, I kinda doubt Switzerland would be very different. If anything, prices here seem lower than in the US, judging by going rates on this forum. I buy my stuff substantially cheaper. Interested in importing ?

I didn't realize supply and prices varied that much overseas. Wonder if I should buy like 10 used 5970 from ebay? Test/burn em, and then sell them in bitcoins to international users. The US postal service has pretty cheap international rates. If you don't mind me asking what do new 6970s go for in Switzerland?